Calico Ghost Town

I have been wanting to take the kids to Calico Ghost Town for a couple of years now and we finally found a day just before school started back up.  It was a hot day (98 degrees), but still a lot cooler than the 115 degrees they are known for in the Summer.

Calico is an old West mining town that has been around since  1881 during the largest silver strike in California.  With its 500 mines, Calico produced over $20 million in silver ore over a 12-year span.  When silver lost its value in the mid-1890's, Calico lost its population.  The miner's packed up, loaded their mules and moved away abandoning the town that once gave them a good living.  It became a "ghost town."   Walter Knott, founder of Knott's Berry Farm, bought it in the 1950's and so I was thinking it would be more of an amusement park type feel, but I guess now that it is own by the county it is really just a place to walk around.  They do have people who come and do stunt shows, but they are all volunteer and don't tend to come out during the Summer months.  Also, the web page showed a stage coach, but one girl told me that it hasn't been around for years so that was kind of a bummer.  Luckily for us, we all enjoy westerns and old towns, so we still had a fun family outing.

Getting ready to enter!

Standing in front of an old horse drawn fire engine.  The town of Calico burned down 3 times and thanks to the richness from the silver mines they rebuilt the town3 times, so I am guessing this old engine got pretty well used.

Playing on an old mine car

Hold em up!

We took a ride on this lame old train and learned some things about the old mines.  One thing that I found interesting was that there is a huge pile of silver mixed in with rocks/dirt that is worth 4 million dollars (WOW), but no one has bothered to dig it up and cash it in, because it would cost 10 million dollars do so!  Yeah, do your math...you would be 6 million in the hole.

We took a tour of the only safe mine left.  Amazing how deep they had to go into the mountain.

Over looking the old mines

We panned for gold and oh my, what a hard job!  After only 5 minutes of shaking the pan under the water, my arms were killing me.  Can't imagine doing this 8 hours a day.

For those of you who have been to Knotts Berry Farm and remember the old Mystery Shack, it is now at Calico Ghost Town.  Lots of memories from our childhood that Wayne and I were glad to be able to share with the kids.

You tend to feel a bit dizzy at first due to the slants/inclines of the shack, but it goes away quickly

Family picture!

Wayne showed that getting up while sitting in the shack is no easy feat.  The story goes that the shack's ghost sits on you. lol

But Wayne pushed through and was finally able to stand up!

It is definitely a fun place to visit once and use as a tool to educate children, but if we ever go back, it will have go be on one of their big events like Calico Days when the volunteer actors, vendors and music groups are there.